Biden admin picks far-left Southern Poverty Law Center to help advise on the 'domestic terror threat'

WASHINGTON, DC- Having the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) advising the administration about the “domestic terror threat” is akin to having Hunter Biden advising about drug policy. Yet here we are. 

The Daily Signal reports that the Biden administration has decided to use the SPLC for advice in combating the “domestic terror threat,” a decision that has caused Republican senators to slam the administration for making such a clearly partisan organization for such advice, The Daily Signal reports. 

For those unfamiliar with the SPLC, National Review in 2018 defined it as “a machine for turning leftist hysteria into cash,” describing it as “simply a MoveOn or Media Matters-style outfit.” National Review wrote that the SPLCZ “is trying to marginalize and shut up even mildly right-of-center voices,” noting that the organization attempts “to tie conservative commentators, authors, political figures and professors to the alt-right or neo-Nazism.” 

As an example of the bias of this group, they previously designated the Family Research Council and the Center for Immigration Studies as hate groups. More recently, NPR reported the SPLC designated Moms for Liberty, a group of mothers who are pushing back against critical race theory and critical gender theory being taught in schools, a hate group. According to their laughable “Year in Hate & Extremism” report for 2022, they said Moms for Liberty “advances an anti-student inclusion agenda.” SPLC also designated Parents Defending Education as a “hate group,” the Heritage Foundation said. 

Yet, for some reason, the Biden administration has chosen this partisan, far-left group to assist it in advising on domestic terror threats. And that has gotten the attention of Republicans such as Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.). 

“Since January 2021, the Biden administration has consistently attempted to weaponize the federal government against its political opponents,” Britt told the Daily Signal in a statement. “That it would turn to the SPLC to do so is disturbing but unfortunately not surprising, given their shared animosity toward religious freedom and parental rights.” 

“The present-day SPLC has devolved into a disreputable, deeply unserious organization that dishonestly attempts to silence anyone across America who disagrees with its far-left activist agenda,” Britt continued. “That makes it a natural ally and echo chamber for a president who routinely demonizes Americans who simply have different political beliefs and perspectives.” 

Britt responded to an exclusive report published in The Daily Signal earlier this month reporting that SPLC President Margaret Huang boasted in 2021 that the Brandon administration had reached out to the SPLC to combat the so-called “domestic terrorism threat.” 

Critics of the organization complain that they routinely include conservative and Christian groups among actual hate groups like the KKK on so-called “hate maps,” which they say proves the Biden administration considers its political adversaries to be on par with those who pose threats to domestic tranquility. 

“Instead of targeting law-abiding Americans, this administration should be combating the national security, humanitarian, and economic crisis at the southern border–which gravely threatens the safety of our homeland and the well-being of our communities every single day,” Britt continued. “I am proud to be a Christian and a conservative, and I’ll continue to fight back against the Biden administration’s radical agenda.” 

By way of comparison, the SPLC has refused to designate Black Lives Matter, which ran roughshod over the country in 2020, a hate group. Conversely, they added White Lives Matter to its Hate Map in 2016, according to The Washington Post. 

In 2020, the SPLC, in response to then-President Donald Trump's declaring Antifa to be a terrorist organization, called the president’s statement “unprecedented and an alarming development with significant implications for the civil liberties of U.S. citizens…” This is despite the thousands of injuries, numerous deaths, and billions in property damage inflicted by the group. In an unbelievable display of tone deafness, the same release said the following:

“Individuals loosely affiliated with Antifa are typically involved in skirmishes and property crimes at demonstrations across the country, but the threat of lethal violence pales in comparison to that posed by far-right extremists…”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) also eviscerated the Biden administration’s selection of the SPLC for advice on domestic terror groups, noting they had conspired with American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten to call parents who attend school board meetings “domestic terrorists.” The SPLC channeled Wiengarten’s dangerous rhetoric. 

In a statement to The Daily Signal, Scott said:

“Since he took office, President Biden’s administration has routinely worked with radical individuals and groups like Randi Weingarten and the SPLC to shape dangerous policy that targets Americans based on their religion [or] political views or simply because they rightly believe they should be involved in their child’s education. 

“It’s wrong and shows just how far President Biden will go in dangerously using the same tactics to weaponize government against its people that we see in Communist China, Venezuela, and Cuba,” Scott added. “I will not tolerate this political targeting and will use every tool at my disposal in the Senate to hold this administration accountable for these despicable decisions.” 

Meanwhile, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) also slammed the administration’s move. 

“The SPLC, which masquerades as a civil rights organization, is a far-left activist group that has smeared countless conservatives, including religious and parental rights groups,” she told The Daily Signal. “It is deeply disturbing that the Biden administration would enlist its help to target conservatives as domestic terrorists, marking just the latest example of this administration’s two-tiered system of justice.” 

In 2021, The Daily Signal wrote, Huang, SPLC’s president, was shown boasting to donors that several agencies in the Biden administration had approached the far-left group seeking help in drafting a domestic terrorism strategy. 

“I think there’s no question that we are unparalleled in our abilities to track and monitor the hate and extremist groups in the country, and I can tell you that we’ve had many agencies in the new Biden administration reaching out to solicit our expertise and our knowledge and information to help shape the policies that the new administration is adopting to counter the domestic terrorism threat,” Huang said. 

Nobody in the Biden White House or any agencies has denied Huang’s claims. Biden and his cronies have had leaders and staff of the SPLC at the White House at least 11 times since Biden was installed in January 2021. In fact, Biden nominated an SPLC attorney, Nancy Abudu, to a federal judgeship. 

The SPLC hasn’t limited its attack on conservative groups to parents or immigration groups. In 2023, the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia field office used the SPLC’s “hate group” list to target what they called “radical, traditional Catholics, with the SPLC using the Catechism of the Catholic Church to brand the Ruth Institute a “hate group.” 

The SPLC has also inserted itself into the administration’s clarion call to “protect voting rights,” with SPLC’s chief strategy officer, Seth Levi, meeting with Kamala Harris at the White House earlier this month. 

The Biden administration likes to accuse conservative groups of “fomenting hate,” however, the left, including the SPLC, have their own crosses to bear. In 2012, a want-to-be terrorist gunman used the “hate map” to target the Family Research Council, where he planned to shoot everyone in the building. It was only through the brave actions of the building manager that the plan was foiled. The SPLC “condemned” the attack yet kept the FRC on its hate map. 

In March 2023, Atlanta police arrested an SPLC attorney at a riot in that city involving Molotov cocktails, who now faces terrorism charges. 

Critics of the organization don’t all come from the right, however. They have come from both sides of the political aisle in condemning the SPLC, accusing the group of ginning up hate to scare donors into funding the organization. In fact, in 2019, amid a racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal, a former employee referred to SPLC’s “hate” accusations as “a highly profitable scam.” 

The SPLC was nailed with a $3.4 million levy to settle a defamation lawsuit relative to branding a Muslim reformer an “anti-Muslim extremist.” There is another lawsuit pending from an immigration reform organization that the SPLC called an “anti-immigrant hate group."

The Biden administration using the Southern Poverty Law Center to help it fight “domestic extremism” is the weaponization of leftist Marxists on steroids. It cannot be allowed to stand.